Luca’s image of ‘Max’ – from the Dog Squad Hero’s Board

It’s a great pleasure to share this slide show (see link below). It’s an overview of a Mantle of the Expert – inspired adventure called Dog Squad. These slides represent the culmination of an incredible team effort over the last few months. Inspired by the work of Tim Taylor and exploremore, the planning for Dog Squad was originally written by Renee Downey (Otaika Valley School) and Viv Aitken, trialled by Renee in her class, and then further developed by teachers from Hillcrest Normal School.

Dog Squad was originally developed for use during lockdown – to support home learning in levels 4 & 3. We wanted to see if we could provide ‘distance learning’ with the qualities of Mantle of the Expert – and encourage children to learn through imagination, embodiment and creativity away from their devices. As you can see from the samples of work on the slides, it was a great success with buy-in from a large number of children and their families. Children responded in all sorts of highly creative ways – the level of commitment and self-directed work was amazing! I think everyone involved would agree that the experiment brought home the potential for Mantle of the Expert in the digital age.

Hillcrest Normal School has continued to work with Dog Squad through the transition back to face-to-face learning – so this version is hot off the press! Slides and examples of children’s work are shared with permission – these are only a small sample of the many creative responses that have been produced.

The collaborative process of working on this resource has been unforgettable and wonderful. The story deserves telling in much more detail – and will be in future. And there are other adventures still in development that I hope we can share in time (I’m looking at you Fossil Hunters team!)

The generous teachers who created Dog Squad are happy to share the slides they created for each episode on a case by case basis – so please email on mantleoftheexpertnz@gmail.com if you would like to request access to those.

For now, here’s a small taste of what has taken many hours of hard work from passionate and committed teachers – and their students.

Enjoy…

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1r1f6o5FgtPQXrZp-4B1JRtB-hvaoCZcPVeKisGgFpAs/edit?usp=sharing

Here’s a wee drama written by the Dramatic Inquiry team at Knighton Normal school in Hamilton (Jacki Paia, David Hannah, Diane Cooper, Nicole Antoniadis, Whakarongo Tauranga) with support from Viv Aitken. This group of teachers has been working to support children in their transition back to face-to-face schooling, with experiences in dramatic play, process drama and Mantle of the Expert.

The drama is based on the picture book Lessons of a LAC by Lynne Jenkins. The story is all about two groups who live on opposite sides of a mountain: the Little Anxious Creatures and the Calmsters. These two groups have a long history of battles. But then one day Loppy the LAC learns some useful strategies from his new Calmster friend and they start to consider a new kind of relationship…

The team felt this story was a good way to begin a conversation with children as they process their feelings about the Covid-19 pandemic and the return to school. The use of drama and the imagined world of the story provides a safe, frame-distanced and enjoyable way to explore some important questions of wellbeing.

Teachers have been trialling the drama this week and it’s gone really well. Now they want to make their planning freely available for others to use. THANKS team for your generosity.

Please post a response below if you use this planning in your class – we’d love to hear how you get on!

The University of Auckland, NZEI, the Principals Federation and the Sir John Kirwan Foundation have partnered to create www.teritotoi.org an online resource to support teachers to return to school through the arts and wellbeing.

This is a very valuable, and very attractive resource with lots of inspirational ideas for using drama and other arts. The resource was specifically designed for use in the first few weeks after lockdown when we finally return to school.

The activities include several really lovely process dramas – and three connected units of work focussed on Hā Ora. These would be a great way to lay the foundations for the longer term cross-curricula learning in Mantle of the Expert once you are back with your classes.

Highly recommended!

Coming up VERY SOON, Drama New Zealand is offering two FREE workshops for primary and intermediate teachers looking at dramatic inquiry for home learning / distance learning. These will be held over ZOOM and facilitated by Viv Aitken and Renee Downey. Further information below (including full flier and facilitator biographies)

There has already been a lot of interest in these workshops, and they are almost full, so please contact Drama NZ to register your interest (links are shown below). Depending on demand, we may repeat the workshops again in the near future.

https://forms.gle/4PbNyhn7KiBGYyTG9LIVE LINK TO FORM
LIVE LINK TO FORM: https://forms.gle/aa59gVUUfYVo18GQ7

Exploremore is a brilliant new initiative from a group in the UK including Tim Taylor. I really recommend checking it out. As the blurb on the ‘exploremore’ site says,

These ideas are a really simple form of learning using stories and adventures, where children become the ‘people’ whose help is needed to solve a problem. The story provides the purpose for the learning and activities are required to help to solve challenges. It doesn’t matter what the age or ability level of your child is as Explore More is designed so they will naturally adapt and learn at their own pace. This means children of different ages can work alongside each other as well.

Tim and co have used simple technology (a slide show and a Padlet) to allow an adult to guide a child, or children through a story adventure. The adult can be involved if they want, but there are large sections where the child can work, create and play independently. Instructions allow participants to have spaces where they make decisions and are in charge of the story, as well as activities where they practice skills and learn across the curriculum.

What I love about this is that it is an online resource that still retains so much of the magic of Mantle of the Expert: there’s artistry; there’s powerful questioning; there’s expert repositioning of children; there’s inquiry; there’s authentic cross curricula learning; there’s adventure; there’s fun; there’s creativity and individuality; there’s embodiment; there’s empathy and critical thinking. At the same time, there’s a sense of escaping into a story, which is just what our children need right now. As one of the parents said on twitter: ‘when the real world is broken, here’s a safe place to go!’

If you visit the exploremore now, you’ll see the first story Troll Hunters is up and available for use free of charge. This is one for younger children. And at the bottom of the page you’ll see examples of some of the awesome things children have been creating and writing. More stories to follow in future for a subscription.

I hope you’ll make good use of the exploremore site. And if, like me, you are inspired to think about planning something of this sort based on a New Zealand context or story, please get in touch. Perhaps we could make something together!?


Here’s a story I only just spotted from the GUARDIAN in 2013. Great advocacy from a teacher in the UK who discovered Mantle of the Expert (which she calls Imaginative Inquiry) and now uses it regularly in her junior classroom. I particularly like how Jenny links Mantle of the Expert to Philosophy for children and dialogic pedagogy. The story was written by Emily Drabble and first published Sun 7 Jul 2013 07.00 BST Click here for link to the original story.

After drifting through her first few years of teaching, Jenny Lewis was put on an inspiring professional development programme that sparked a passion for creative approaches to learning

Jenny Lewis
 Imaginative inquiry: speaking and listening skills have gone through the roof since Jenny Lewis introduced an imaginary world of learning to her pupils. Photograph: Jenny Lewis

Both my parents were teachers and they advised me not to go into teaching. I did a degree in English literature at Goldsmiths University then worked for a few years in shops and offices. I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing. Then I decided to do a PGCE at Goldsmiths, not because I had any burning ambition – just because I wanted a career. I worked in two inner city schools in London, first South Haringay Infants school then Allen Edwards primary school. I loved the kids and the challenge and of course teaching is always more than a job, but I didn’t have a clear vision about what learning should be about or what I believed teaching was.

I moved to Oxford and got a job in another inner city multicultural school called East Oxford First school. It was here I started finding myself as a teacher. I had a fantastic head and we had challenging children from complex social circumstances. We had to work so closely with families as many of them were refugees and travellers – and we needed to create a really nurturing environment and our biggest drive was to help children be receptive to learning even with such complicated home lives. I became part of the leadership team and I started to get more emotionally involved with teaching.

But it was when I moved to Norwich that everything really started to change for me. I started teaching at Avenue First School which is now part of Recreation Road primary. Our head Serena Dixon is incredible and she’s changed my life in so many ways. She finds and nurtures talent in people and I can’t overstate the massive impact she has had on me as a person and a teacher. It was really at this point that I began to learn a lot more about pedagogy, about how children learn and think, rather than just delivering the curriculum.

At that time Norfolk Education Authority had this incredible programme: Thinking Schools, Thinking Children. Serena Dixon was really keen to get involved and it was the start of a really inspirational few years that Norfolk schools are still benefitting from today.

The real revelations were using philosophy and drama for learning. We got to hear amazing inspirational speakers including Barry Hymer and Sir John Jones – speakers who have had a real impact on education and made me think about what learning is about. So suddenly all this opened up to me.

The best thing about the programme for me was that it was based on action research so we would go back and try things out in our classes, it was a really reflective process.

We found that using philosophy for children (P4C) and creating a dialogic classroom was right for our school. Robin Alexander from Cambridge University taught me so much about using talk in the classroom and creating a real co-constructed learning environment – so instead of a teacher imparting knowledge by asking questions it’s more about being a facilitator in the classroom and getting high-level dialogue and a higher-order of conversation.

Then in 2004 I went to hear a speaker called Luke Abbott talk about imaginative inquiry. I was completely intrigued by what he had to say about the Mantle of the Expert (MoE) pedagogy, a drama-based learning where the children learn in an imaginary world in role. That was the day that my teaching life took an incredible turn.

It seemed such an exciting way for me to move forward as a practitioner so I was thrilled to become part of a project that trained me in the use of MoE. Since then I have worked with a group of colleagues who have become a committed and transforming support group and who are still helping me to refine and improve my practice and understanding of the approach.

I have run a series of long term MoE contexts with my classes, while developing imaginative-inquiry as a pedagogic approach that we use throughout the school.

My current year 2 children are a group of curators creating a museum about a workhouse. We have co-created the story of the Baxter family who entered the workhouse in 1835. As museum creators in 2013 we examine these fictional historical documents to piece together information. We co-create the whole world and the class’ job to go in and turn the classroom into a museum. They partly work in the present and partly in the 19th century in a process (rather than a performance) drama.

We spend around half our time in school fully in role. It’s a very deep way of working. You can cover most of the curriculum within the imaginary world.

The children absolutely love it and speaking and listening skills go through the roof. Because the world is co-created and the pupils lead the story they have a huge ownership of it. They have so many ideas and have a really big say over their learning. Children come in with ideas and as a teacher you weave them into the drama. When you start there’s a lot of learn, it’s a complex pedagogy.

Now we use MoE across the school, as well as the forest school approach and P4C. There is nothing fluffy about it. We are an Ofsted outstanding school. Our data holds up, we have strong academic achievement.

Working like this takes a lot of time, you aren’t dusting down old plans, you’re being constantly creative. But it’s such a lot of fun. I compare it to being in an amazing film. We all become very emotional at this time of year when the film is about to end, it’s really hard to say goodbye to these year long projects.

Thanks to Jenny for sharing these Fictional historical documents which are part of her year 2 class’s MoE co-created story of the Baxter family who entered the workhouse in 1835.

Jenny Lewis teachers at Recreation Road Infant school in Norwich. Jenny is also involved in training and supporting other teachers in Norfolk and beyond.

Topics

Auckland theatre company has a long history of creating quality theatre for adults and young people. Now it’s developing a brand new programme for young children from years 1-3 called ‘Storyworlds.’ In this approach, children are taken on a creative adventure by actor-teachers, who use a range of dramatic inquiry strategies (including teacher in role, drama conventions, storytelling and significant artefacts) to bring storybooks to life. Children are involved as active participants in the adventure; helping to solve problems and decide the direction for the story to take.

A really exciting thing about the programme is that it is tailored for each school and also involves professional development in dramatic inquiry. Teachers are involved in the planning – which is different for every setting. They are also given opportunities to co-teach in the dramatic inquiry aspects of the programme and are supported to continue to use the strategies and conventions of drama after the project has finished. That’s such a rich and unique model, bringing together expertise in theatre-making and education for the benefit of children and teachers.

Here’s a short video about Storyworlds. If you’d be interested in finding out more or hosting a Storyworlds adventure in your school, please email lynne at Auckland Theatre Company: lynne@atc.co.nz

This learning story comes from Owhango school – a small rural school in King Country. Owhango school has 47 children, 2 teachers (Emma and Jessie) and a principal (Ewan) with a real passion for the arts. Ewan applied for funding for PLD and that’s how come I got to spend the last two years visiting the school and working with them to deepen their classroom practice in drama, dance and music – what a joy! We finished up our time together last month with this three day adventure based around the Māori creation story.

While it’s not an example of mantle of the expert, our teaching and learning did include some dramatic inquiry moments and shows how drama can be integrated with other arts and with literacy so I thought I’d post for your interest (mostly I just want to record the rosy times spent with this lovely school!)

The planning for the drama aspects of this unit of work was adapted from a process drama I created with staff from Knighton School in Hamilton earlier in the year … a great example of sharing practice around. Thanks to both schools. Thanks also Ewan for permission to share these images. Story extracts and the atua puppets were created from Peter Gossage’s picture book In the beginning…

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO LEARNING STORY

Whakarongo Tauranga from Knighton School in Hamilton has generously offered to share this account of some recent work in her classroom. Download the full file below.

During 2019, Whakarongo has led a team of 10 committed folk at Knighton school to explore how dramatic inquiry, including Mantle of the Expert, can be used to teach New Zealand history. The group has used Tamsin Hanly’s Critical Histories of Aotearoa and I had the privilege of supporting them in my role as a Ministry-accredited PLD provider. It’s been a wonderful year of what feels like really significant mahi – and we’re looking forward to more in 2020.

I particularly appreciate how this planning encourages students to explore multiple perspectives on the first encounters between Māori and Cook. It’s great to have the children’s voice included in this account too. Thanks so much Whakarongo!

Please acknowledge Whakarongo as the original author of this planning if you make use of it in future. Also, I’m sure she would welcome any comments or feedback so feel free to add those below.

Here’s the planning for a simple process drama based on Robyn Kahukiwa’s beautiful picture book Taniwha. This drama was shared at the Literacy conference and the TRCC course in October 2019, with participants coming up with some really thoughtful responses.

Robyn Kahukiwa’s gorgeous book has enormous potential for rich exploration across the arts and the short lesson offered here only skims the surface of the deeper meanings that could be explored through the text. However, I think it’s a good example of how effective process drama can be created fairly easily using a picture book as pretext.

Here also is the planning framework that was used to create the drama. This handout has been shared on this site before using a different book. It’s amazing how these simple steps can be used to create unique dramas from just about any picture book. Check it out and have a go at writing your own!